As this type of image capture apparatus, a camera having an optical finder and a digital finder that can be switched therebetween and enabling a user to easily check a reproduced image without changing the user's posture when taking an image, has been known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-357123). The camera has a first finder system for optically directing an object image passed through a photographing lens into a finder, and a second finder system for digitally directing an object image into a finder through an image pickup element and a display device into a finder. The camera also has a finder switching section for switching a valid state of both of the finders. The camera also has a mode switching section for switching a recording mode and a reproduction mode, and a control section for switching both of the modes.
In the camera, when the control section switches from the recording mode to the reproduction mode, the finder switching section forcibly switches the finder system into a valid state of the second finder system. When the control section returns the switched mode to the record mode again, the finder switching section automatically returns to the finder system that was valid in the original recording mode.
A camera that enables a user to recognize the proportion of a calculated appropriate exposure value and exposure values before and after the calculation on the capturing screen only by looking into a finder is also known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H06-282004). The camera is adapted to indicate an object image on a focusing screen in the finder, and also indicate such exposure conditions as a luminance distribution of the object, a shutter speed and an iris on a display device nearby. The camera divides the object image into a two-dimensional lattice, measures luminance for each square, and processes the luminance in a CPU therein. Then, the camera displays the number of squares with luminance appropriate for the designed exposure conditions on the center, the number of squares with higher luminance on the right side, and the number of squares with low luminance on the left side of the display device as a histogram.
The image capture apparatus however has problems below. In the camera described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-357123, only the first finder that optically directs the object image through the photographing lens into a finder and the second finder that digitally directs the object to the finder through the image pickup element and the display device are simply switched, when the mode is switched into the reproduction mode. Therefore, when the second finder is used, a user cannot observe the object image and sometimes fails to take a good shutter chance.
In the camera described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H06-282004, a user can check a proportion of a calculated appropriate exposure value and exposure values before and after the calculation on the capturing screen through a finder, but not various conditions required for taking a good photograph. For example, the user cannot check such conditions as whether an appropriate white balance are set or not, whether the object is well focused or not, whether a composition does not match an intended composition as a result of vibration proof of the image pickup element or not. Nor the user checks such conditions as whether a foreign matter such as a dust is on an optical low-path filer or not and whether the color mode is unexpectedly set to the monotone mode or not while the user wishes to take a color photograph.